Jay Inslee

This page was last edited on 6 March 2018, at 20:52.

Jay Robert Inslee (/ˈɪnzliː/; born February 9, 1951) is an American politician, author, and attorney serving as the 23rd and current Governor of Washington since January 2013. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

Alongside State Solicitor General Noah Purcell, State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, and Judge James L. Robart, Governor Inslee played a major role in the nationwide halt on President Donald Trump's Executive Order 13769, in which a travel restriction was put in place on several countries. Trump's travel restriction halted travel for 90 days from 7 Muslim-majority countries and a total ban on Syrian refugees entering the United States.

Inslee has attributed his interest in the outdoors to the years his parents spent leading student groups on wilderness conservation trips in cooperation with the SCA in Mount Rainier in the 1960s and 1970s.[2] He practiced law for ten years in Selah, Washington, a city just north of Yakima.

Washington House of Representatives (1989–1993)

Elections

Inslee ran for the Washington House of Representatives in 1988 after incumbent Republican State Representative Jim Lewis resigned to become political commentator of a Yakima television station.[3] He was inspired to run after the state legislature undermined a school bond that he had worked to pass after years of failure.[4] In the blanket primary, Republican Lynn Carmichael ranked first with 43% and Inslee ranked second with 40%. Republican Glen Blomgren ranked third with 17%.[5] In the general election, Inslee defeated Carmichael 52%-48%.[6] In 1990, Inslee won re-election with 62% of the vote.[7]

Tenure

In the Washington state legislature, Inslee pursued a bill to provide initial funding to build five branch campuses of the Washington State University system. Although the bill failed, Inslee’s tenacity made an impression on House Speaker Joe King, who said: "He's not afraid to incur the wrath of the speaker or the caucus."[8] In 1991, Inslee voted for a state energy policy which required the state to devise a cost-effective energy strategy, and also that state agencies and school districts must pursue and maintain energy-efficient operation of their facilities.[9]

Committee assignments

U.S. House of Representatives (1993–1995)

Elections

1992

In 1992, he ran for and was elected to the United States Congress representing Washington's 4th congressional district in the central-eastern part of the state. His home area of the district, anchored by Yakima, is relatively rural and agriculture-based, while the southeastern part of his district is more focused on research and nuclear waste disposal, anchored by the Tri-Cities.

Tenure

In Congress Inslee passed the Yakima River Enhancement Act,[13] a bill long held up in Congress by brokering a breakthrough with irrigators and wildlife advocates. He also helped to open Japanese markets to American apples, and fund and oversee the nation's biggest nuclear waste site at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, Washington.[14]

Inter-congressional years (1995–1999)

1996 gubernatorial election

He ran for Governor of Washington in 1996 and lost in the blanket primary. Democratic King County Executive and former State Representative Gary Locke ranked first with 24% of the vote. Democratic Mayor of SeattleNorm Rice ranked second with 18%, but didn't qualify for the general election. Republican State Senator Ellen Craswell ranked third with 15%, and became the Republican candidate to qualify for the general election. Republican State Senator and Senate Majority Leader Dale Foreman ranked fourth with 13%. Inslee ranked fifth with 10%. No other candidate on the ballot received double digits.[16]

U.S. House of Representatives (1999–2012)

Elections

Inslee as a representative

Inslee ran again for Congress in 1998, this time in the 1st congressional district against two-term incumbent Rick White. His campaign attracted national attention when he became the first Democratic candidate to air television ads attacking his opponent and the Republican congressional leadership for the Lewinsky scandal.[19] Inslee won with 49.8% of the vote to White's 44.1%; he had an unintentional assist in his successful return by the conservative third political party candidacy of Bruce Craswell, husband of 1996 GOP gubernatorial nominee Ellen Craswell.

The 1st was a swing district for most of the 1990s; Inslee's win marked the third time the district had changed hands in four elections. However, Inslee was a major beneficiary of the recent Democratic trend in the Seattle area. Inslee defeated Washington Senate Minority Leader Dan McDonald in 2000, taking 54.6% of the vote. Inslee defeated former state representative Joe Marine in 2002, taking 55.6% of the vote after the district was made more Democratic in the 2000s round of redistricting. He would never face another contest nearly that close, and was reelected three more times with over 60 percent of the vote.

In July 2003, after Gary Locke announced he would not seek a third term as Washington's governor, Inslee briefly flirted with a gubernatorial bid before deciding to remain in Congress.[20]

During the 2009-10 campaign cycle, Inslee raised $1,140,025. In data compiled for the period 2005 to 2007 and excluding individual contributions of less than $200, 64 percent of Inslee's donations were from outside the state of Washington and 86 percent came from outside his district (compared to 79 percent for the average House member). A total of 43 percent of Inslee's donations came from Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland. The largest interests funding Inslee's campaign were pharmaceutical and health related companies, lawyers and law firms, and high tech companies.[21]

In 2010 he won by a 15-point margin, with 57.67% of the votes cast in his favor.[22] His district went 62% to Barack Obama in 2008, an indication of how strongly the district then leaned Democratic.

Governor of Washington (2013–present)

2012 gubernatorial election

On June 27, 2011, Inslee announced his candidacy for Governor of Washington in 2012.[34] His campaign focused on job creation, outlining dozens of proposals to increase job growth in clean energy, the aerospace industry, and biotechnology. He also supported a ballot measure to legalize gay marriage, which passed, and opposed tax increases.[35] He won election by a relatively slim three-point margin over his Republican opponent, Rob McKenna, with 51% of the vote.[36] McKenna did not immediately concede, waiting until all votes had been counted.[35]

2016 gubernatorial election

On November 8, 2016, Inslee won re-election as Governor of Washington, defeating Republican former Port of Seattle Commissioner Bill Bryant. Bryant officially conceded the office to Inslee on November 10, after more votes had been counted.

First Term 2013–2017

During the 2013 session, the legislature failed to create a fiscal budget plan during the initial session, and Inslee was forced to call two special sessions in order to give time for a budget to be created. The Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic-controlled House each passed their own budgets, but could not agree with one.[37] Finally, in June 2013, Inslee was able to sign a US$33.6 billion budget upon which both houses had agreed as a compromise, albeit hesitantly. [38]

On June 13, 2013, Inslee signed an additional estate tax into law. The estate tax had bipartisan support and passed the Senate in a 30-19 vote.[39]

In January 2014, Inslee gave a speech commending machinists who voted to renew Boeing's contract with Seattle, allowing the company to build its Boeing 777x aircraft in Seattle. Inslee said the contract would bring Washington to a new industrial plateau and be a turning point for Washington jobs:

"These jobs are in the thousands and it is not only on the 777X, the first model of the 777X but all the subsequent derivative models as well."

Personal life

Trudi Inslee

Inslee and his wife Trudi were high school sweethearts and were married on August 27, 1972. They have three sons, Jack, Connor, and Joe, and live on Bainbridge Island.[52]

Inslee is an avid basketball player and a member of "Hoopaholics",[53] a charity group dedicated to "treatment of old guys addicted to basketball and who can no longer jump" as Inslee has often joked. In October 2009, he played basketball at the White House in a series of games featuring members of Congress on one team and members of the administration, including President Obama, on the other.[54]

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